Close but no cigar
by Arcangradian
Summary: In which Benezia survives the events of Noveria thanks to a little quick thinking on Shepard's part, but now has to deal with the Council, Saren and a growing affection between her and the Spectre that saved her, hopefully. This is going to be messy! (In a good way)
1. Chapter 1

I

It was futile, all of it. Benezia knew this, she had known since she had first set foot on Nazara. She had lied to herself those first few weeks. She had told herself that she was strong enough to resist the ancient machine. That she would not end up like Saren, and that she could actually help him. Save him, and the galaxy. How pitifully wrong she had been. Instead, Nazara had implanted an ungodly presence in her head. It had completely taken over her body, she was no longer in control at all. She could not talk, or even lift a finger. She was quiet literally trapped within her own mind. And, as a result, she could not save Saren, or the galaxy. She had gotten completely in over her head. Aethyta had always said something like this would happen. Benezia wondered if she would glad to be right. She had tried to fight the presence, to take back some control. When that had become to exhausting, she simply screamed at the thing, which then screamed at her, told her to shut up and continued to use her like a marionette. She could only watch on has it took advantage of her natural asari ability of synthesis, and forcibly extracted knowledge from the rachni queen's mind. Benezia would have screamed, would have fought but after Feros, she could fight no more. On Feros, were she had let- no, she had been forced to. She had been forced to watch as Saren handed Shiala, quite literally as well, over to the Thorian. The Thorian was a plant, as much as a kraken was a squid. She refused to remember it, refused to remember Shiala being absorbed by the creature, to be used in much the same way Benezia was being used now. After that horrible event, and Eden Prime before it, Benezia was much too tired to fight the presence anymore. She was ready to die.

That made the presence laugh, a horrible sick laugh. It was not going to let her die anytime soon, she would be forced to watch her body slowly die, or be turned into a cybernetic abomination like Saren, and that amused the presence. Benezia was too tired to even be angry about that. Besides, death might be arriving quite soon, in the form of the human Spectre Shepard. The presence was arrogant, and had convinced itself that the annoying human and its band of accomplices were no match for it. It had positioned her perfectly, that when Shepard came through the doorway on the left, she would find Benezia standing facing the Rachni queen's tank. Around her stood her commandos, the true tradgedy in the whole affair. Like Shiala, she could not save them. If she survived this, their deaths would be entirely her fault.

Geth troopers were their too, but their deaths would be entertaining. She could not wait to see Shepard turn them into scrap metal. She remembered the data that the presence had made transcribe into an OSD, and how that OSD was still quite conveniently in her. She hoped that Shepard would find it, she had too. For the sake of the galaxy, she had too. At that moment, the door slid open and through walked the human herself. She pranced forward, gun drawn, and flanked by… no. That asari could not ne Liara! The presence cackled to itself, and through her mouth spoke of being a mother, and taunted Liara. A spark of anger, just enough, awoke within her, and she started pushing again. She ignored whatever villainous varrenshit the presence was spouting, instead she pushed. This had the unfortunate consequence of her losing any focus on her body. When she finally pushed through, a pain in her abdomen took her breath away. She looked down, a bullet wound. A wet sticky heat was slowly spreading across her abdomen.

She ignored the pain, she had to tell them. "You… you must listen! Saren wanted to use the rachni in a private army. To use them against you…"

She was cut off from saying anymore by Shepard raising her hand sharply, and glaring from beneath her helmet. "Wait, weren't you just attacking us?"

Benezia ignored that, "Listen!" she yelled, pulling out the OSD. The presence started screaming, she ignored that too. "Saren wanted to find the Mu Relay, he needed the rachni queen to do that! Or rather the knowledge stored in her mind. I transcribed the data to this OSD, take it please!"

Shepard took it gingerly, and the presence exploded. Its screaming intensified to the point where Benezia could hear nothing, her ears felt as though they were bleeding. Her hands instinctively slammed to the side of her head, and she dropped down into a crouch. She might have screaming too, as Liara's expression changed to one of pure horror, and Shepard was kneeling beside her, doing something on her omni-tool. Whatever she did, did not take long to come into effect. A blissful silence slowly spread through Benezia's mind, as though she had slowly submerged herself in water until that accursed voice became nothing but a dull, distance noise.

II

Benezia awoke, pleased to find that she was completely back in control of her body. If the excruciating pain everything was in was anything to go by at least. When that presence had been in control, she had not been able to feel anything. It was likely that the excruciating pain was due to the hunger and thirst she suddenly felt; it was not likely that presence had taken a moment to give her body any form of nutrition.

She opened her eyes slowly. They were burning. She blinked several times, each lasting a good five seconds, as her eyelids felt like sandpaper. Eventually her vision cleared up enough for her to take in her surroundings. It was very dark, but not like Nazara had been. Everything was blueish as well, and the metal walls suggested ship. Their flat, angular shape suggested human. That suggested that she was on Shepard's ship, which was good but also very, very bad.

The thought of explaining indoctrination- that is what she was deciding to call it- to the Council and to the Matriarchy, and explaining it well enough that did not execute her anyway, was enough to make Benezia's already splitting headache worsen.

A soft, hissing sound came from Benezia's left, and a grey haired human came in. She looked startled at first, but seemed to relax once she had deemed Benezia was not a threat. And she really was not, as she was restrained and in enough pain to bother a krogan. ''Ah, you are awake. Good, Liara will be pleased. How… are you feeling?"

"I have regained control of my body and the presence in my head has left. Whatever Shepard did seems to have worked. Also, I feel like I was just sat on by krogan."

The human regarded her for a moment, then simply held out a cup of water. Benezia's pride could not less for what the scene looked like, a human having to the hold the cup to her mouth. She was much too thirsty to care. Besides, no one else had seen it.

Her throat no longer feeling like fresh sandpaper, Benezia found talking to be a lot easier. "What did Shepard do anyway?"

The human did not answer immediately; as she was too busy scribbling something on a clipboard. "She killed you, then immediately resuscitated you. Her theory was that if you were dead, then Sovereign would no longer want to control you, as it would see you as dead, and useless."

Benezia pursed her lips, clever human this Shepard was.

"I am sorry, but I did not get your name."

"Docter Chakwas, I am the ships medical officer."

Benezia nodded, and before she could say any more, the medbay door hissed open again. This time a very angry Liara stepped through. Her eyes were puffy as well, it looked like she had been crying. They widened and filled with something akin to relief when they fell onto Benezia. "Mother…"

A voice, Shepard's it sounded like, came from behind Liara and she turned around, back to her very angry state. "She is my mother! I have the right to see her, especially after all this!"

"But Liara, she could still be a danger wait until Doctor Chakwas-"

"She's no danger. Liara can come in." the doctor said nonchalantly. "Shepard I must speak with you, outside, Liara you may talk to you mother."

Once the doctor left the medbay, Liara rushed over to her and through her arms over Benezia's shoulders. It was a little awkward due to Benezia being in horizontal position, and Beneiza could not hug back. Instead she simply leaned her head into Liara's shoulder and whispered "It's okay, Little Wing. It's all going to be okay."


	2. Chapter 2

I

After a few minutes, Liara finally pulled back and gave Benezia the most fearsome glare she had seen. "What were you thinking!?" Benezia winced and looked down. Liara continued to glare fiercely at her. She did not have an answer, nothing that would satisfy her at least. The truth was, she had done it after feeling helpless after Liara had left her side. How was she supposed to explain that without making it sound like it was Liara's fault? When, really it was not. "I… don't know, Little Wing."

Liara huffed and looked away from her, "So much for matriarchal wisdom! Arrogance, more like."  
Benezia said nothing, allowing Liara to seethe. She did want to point out that Liara was on a spectres ship, on a mission to fight a rogue spectre and his army geth, but that did not seem wise, that was also Benezia's fault, in a roundabout way.

"The Council demanded to see you, you are being tried with treason."

Benezia sighed, she had known that already. Her headache worsened. "I know. I take the humans will want to see me hang after Eden Prime, and the Matriarchy will hand me over as a show of good faith, no matter how well I explain my case."

Liara shook her head, adopting that same adorable expression of stubbornness that Benezia remembered all too fondly. Liara would adopt that expression whenever she was told that she could not do something, or that should not. Or when her theory's on the protheans were question, but then you had better have a good opposing theory otherwise that cute expression turned murderous.

"No! Shepard won't let that happen."

Benezia snorted, despite herself. It was not a very matriarchal thing to do, but then neither was running off with a crazy turian spectre and getting possessed by evil ancient machine. She figured that a few undignified noises were acceptable at this point. While she did not doubt that Shepard was more stubborn enough to put a good fight, the chances of spectre winning against the matriarchy were low.

At the moment the human in question walked through the door, looking a lot calmer than she had been before. She nodded to Liara, and then looked Benezia dead in the eye. Was she trying to be intimidating? Why? Or maybe it was a sign of respect…

"Matriarch, Doctor CHakwas tells me you are no longer under the effects of Saren's mind control."

Benezia remained silent, waiting for the human to get to the point. Shepard continued after a moment, "We will have to explain that to the council. We have evidence but…"

She trailed off, adopting an almost disdainful expression. "Politics, I know, commander." Benezia tilted her head, "What are you planning to tell them? It's not likely they'll allow me to speak for myself after all."

Shepard straightened as she spoke, "I have evidence of indoctrination, we recently raided one of Saren's bases on Virmire, were we encountered a doctor who was studying its effects. We have side by side readings of a indoctrinated mind, and your current mind. I also took the liberty of scanning you just before you… died. Hopefully, this will be enough for at least an insanity plea."

Benezia pursed her lips, again the human surprised her with her intuitiveness. That would be a good argument, at best it would lead to her being kept in an high security sanitarium. But, there was one problem that the human, bless her, did not see. "That is all well and good Shepard, but there is one thing that they will use against me. Why did I not report Saren when I first learned of his crazy? And besides that being a question I am currently repeatedly asking myself, that does count as conspiring against the Council and/or another sentient race."

Shepard frowned and sighed, " Close but no cigar!"

Benezia frowned at the foreign idiom, but before she translated it, Liara spoke. "We could argue that Saren was blackmailing you…"

Benezia was about to inquire how but Shepard spoke first, her eyes brightening. "Of course, he tried to send geth to capture you, that's as could good as kill. 'Stay with me, or your daughter gets it."

Benezia, ignoring the cold rage that poured over her at that tiny bit of information, was about to point out that was not technically blackmailing, as why would he be send geth to kill Liara if Benezia was still working with him, but Liara spoke again. "He likely told you that he did capture me, even though he did not, to keep you in check."

Benezia blinked slowly with a sigh, "Nice story, but you two do realize I was with Saren for months before Noveria correct? What will I say then?"

Shepard shrugged with a sigh, "The truth? You were trying to help him but Sovereign indoctrinated you, and we have all the evidence for that."

Benezia snorted, and laughed shortly. "The truth? The honest truth in politics? Oh well, we will have to try. Maybe someone in the Matriarchy will grow a brain… and a heart I suppose."

II

The council meeting was held in private. It was the actual hearing, were judgement would truly be decided. The public spectacle would occur the following day, where Benezia would be publicly castrated, metaphorically of course, and 'given to the humans' or not.

Hopefully, her martyr angle would work, but she really was not so sure. The council chamber was empty save for the Council, the human ambassador who was a man who looked like he just tasted Ryncol and was _not_ liking it, Shepard, Liara and the turian who had been with them on Noveria, and lastly an asari doctor with rather nice black markings. The Matriarchy was watching this, and talking through an earpiece to Tevos, the asari councillor.

She spoke first, "Matrairch Benezia, you most likely know why you are here. We have allowed this meeting to give you an opportunity to defend yourself, and actions, in the last several months."

Benezia took a breath, "I can't 'defend my actions' Councilor, as they were quiet literally not my own."

Valern, the Salarian Councilor, frowned. "Explain."

Benezia glanced at Shepard then looked directly toward the Council, "Well, it is quiet difficult to explain properly, but I shall try. Saren found an ancient machine, which was around the size of a dreadnought. The geth did not build it, I don't know who did but what I do know is that it possesses the ability to take control of the mind."

She let sink in, and not surprisingly Tevos spoke first. "And what evidence do you have of this.. mind control?"

"Plenty. Commander Shepard acquired an asari doctor who was studying it." she tilted her head to the doctor who practically shrunk under the Council's gaze. "I wll let her explain it."

The doctor stepped forward, "Councilors, what the Matriarch says is true. The 'ship' Sovereign has an electromagnetic field which it generates, which create fields of infrasound. It weakens the victims mental control, disorientating them, making them unsure themselves, then it slowly begins to take control. The ship is not actually a ship, Councilors, it is very powerful AI, it is sentient. Only the Matriarch's strong mental capabilities allowed her to keep a portion of her mind safe, effectively trapping herself within in her own mind."

Valern nodded, "I see, yes that does sound plausible but, is the Matriarch free of this indoctrination, if so how can we be sure?"

The doctor continued after bringing up scans of Benezia's mind. Mind scans were not like brainscans, instead they showed they subtle movements of thought. It was the asari who had created these out of necessity to understand illnesses brought about by melding.

"These are scans of Benezia's mind before and after. The before as you can see is far too methodized for an organic, these are entirely Sovereign's thoughts. Sovereign is not a peaceful machine either, so that explains the violent thought patterns. There, you see a tiny section that is erratic and jumbled, like an organic's, that was left of Benezia. The after scan which was taken after Shepard stopped Benezia's heart which killed her, and then she resuscitated her, shows a mind that is completely organic as you can see. Sovereign 'abandoned' her after her body stopped working, leaving her completely free of its control."

The doctor took a breath when she finished. Valern looked thoughtful, likely very intrigued and worried by this 'indoctrination'. Sparartus, the Turian councillor, looked believing, relieved and worried all at the same time. Tevos though… oh dear, what was the Matriarchy doing? "That… is a good argument doctor, but why did Benezia even join Saren in the first place?" Tevos asked, her eyes apologetic and it was clear it was not she who was asking.

Benezia sighed, "I… wanted to stop him. I did not realize what I was getting into, or the true extent of his plans. I thought he was just deeply troubled, he did not like humans at all, nor did he trust them. I had hoped to show him the light, that violence was not the answer."

Tevos was about to speak again but was cut by Sparatus, "An admirable goal, Matriarch. Indeed, many of race are in accord with not trusting humans. It is unfortunate that you could help him, Matriarch, but you could not have forseen Sovereign."

Valern spoke immediately, again cutting Tevos off, "Yes. Very unfortunate. The crimes you are charged with are clearly not your own, but of Sovereign. Ambassador, what does your government say?"

Udina regarded Benezia for a long moment before sighing heavily, "The people of the Alliance would want to see her hang after Eden Prime, they will be furious unless we can declassify indoctrination. But otherwise, we have ruled her innocent. "

Tevos looked pale. Sparatus turned to her, "And what does the Matriarchy say?"

"We have ruled her as guilty, as her not reporting Saren earlier and her poor judgement costing lives, but there is a vote to have you simply banned from asari space…"

"What!?" Liara exclaimed, stepping forward.

Tevos sighed "And a vote to have her simply barred from participating in the Matriarchy." Tevos froze suddenly and closed her eyes. She opened them and gave Benezia one of the most sorrowful, apologetic and remorseful gazes ever, "Matrarich. The vote to have you banned from Asari space has been one by five votes."

Silence filled the chamber, everybody seemed uneasy except Benezia herself. She had seen this coming, and was just grateful they did not opt to send a Justicar instead. Sparatus, surprisingly, spoke up first. Loudly, and angrily, "That is unfair! Poor judgement? Based on what Benezia knew at the time, I would say that was the right decision!"

Tevos winced, and before she could defend herself, Valern glared at her," Unacceptable! But I suppose I should be surprised. I vote we grant you asylum on the Citadel."

Sparatus paused, and gazed at Shepard, "Actually, Councilor. We could implement a bit of Turian law here. Benezia has been effectively 'set up' by Saren. It is his and that abomination of a machine's, fault that she is now barred from her home. I suggest that we allow Benezia into Shepard's custody. Her biotic and combat abilities are quite notable, and she would be a valuable aide to the commander."

Valern nodded, "Yes, that is a rather good idea. Hopefully that will redeem her in her people's eyes. Commander, do you accept the proposal?"

Shepard nodded, "I do. If anything I think Benezia has earned some revenge. I also will not be going anywhere near asari space." She added the tail end just before Tevos could say anything. Valern stood straight, "Good. Then it is decided. Matriarch Benezia will remain in Commander Shepard's custody aboard the SSV Normandy until such a time as Saren, his geth and Sovereign are no longer a threat. This meeting of the Council is adjourned."

Everyone seemed happy with the decision, except, ironically, Benezia. "Thought you would happier?" the turian, Garrus, said. Shepard spoke," Why would she be? Remember, we are chasing Sovereign, and I do not like the thought of what might happen when she gets into close proximity to that thing again."

Again Benezia was impressed Shepard's intuitiveness, and the note of concern in her words was interesting. Not concern as in 'I am concerned that she is going to go crazy again and try to kill us' but 'I am concerned for her'. Maybe it was because she was friends with Liara, but still. It was interesting to see so much compassion in a stranger…

Before she could the human's…. no, Shepard's, attitude any further, the Commander was already heading for the elevators. "Come on, Saren isn't going to catch himself."


	3. Chapter 3

Shepard sipped her coffee gratefully, enjoying the rare moment of silence that she stolen for herself. The last two months had been a rollercoaster of activity that she had been wholly unprepared for. She had gone from her post on Terra Nova which only involved a few anti-pirate operations, seeing action perhaps twice a month. The entirety of her time spent there she was under the command of Rear Admiral Kohoku, and most of her days had been spent training. Now, she was the sole officer in charge of the Normandy, a Spectre, and on a high risk mission that taken to the far corners of the Traverse. Every day she was either being shot at by geth, or mercenaries. Only Kaidan seemed to be the one of aware of the pressure she was under, and if had not been for him, she may very well have cracked.

Shepard sighed, leaning forward to rest her head on the cold metal of her desk.

Sadly, even Kaidan was getting a bit overwhelmed by recent events and Ashley on Virmire had shaken him to the core. She wondered idly if there had perhaps been something between him and the gunnery chief, but it was unlikely. Kaidan was a stickler for the regulations. But Virmire was past them, and they seemed now to one more obstacle ahead of them in the mad chase to stop Saren. But after that? She had an ostracised Matriarch to deal with. _That_ whole affair had almost proven to be the last straw. What was the Council thinking?

Oh, let's just put the war criminal on Shepard's ship, the commander will definitely know what to do, and she most definitely knows how to handle an asari matriarch! Shepard sighed heavily; she would have to turn to Liara for help there, and she regretted that. The young asari was also dealing with a lot right now, and Shepard hated that she had to put this on her as well.

Benezia at least seemed like a normal person, and not the aloof stereotype that most would picture an asari matriarch as. In fact, in their brief chat while Shepard had shown her around the Normandy, she did not seem like a bad person either. She was unnervingly quiet though, and seemed quite distant, but then again she had just experienced the trauma of being possessed by an eldritch machine and being thrown out of her home, so Shepard could not fault her that.

If this all pulled through, she would love to get to know the Matriarch better. From what Liara described her as, she seemed like an amazing person. And, she was quite attractive. While she looked like Liara, obviously, Shepard would dare say that she looked like a handsomer Liara, with a stronger chin, higher set cheekbones and jaw that could probably slice marble.

Shepard sighed, again. She was grateful at least for the distraction thinking about how attractive Benezia was provided, but she knew that it was not entirely appropriate. She was one of her friend's mothers after all.

Well, distraction over, much like her coffee. She had to think of their next move, which was Ilos. After a good deal of headbutting with the Council and the Alliance, Shepard had managed to convince them that she would not start a war with the terminus. She was not even sure how that was even possible since the Terminus Systems was not one entity. They could probably piss Aria of but honestly, that was hardly going to start a war. Hopefully.

"Commander?"

Shepard stiffed, "Yes Joker?"

"We're about two hours from Ilos."

Shepard let out a long breath that did nothing to ease the tension in her shoulders. This was it, they were finally going to find the conduit… and Saren. She grinned darkly; he was going to pay for Ashley.

"Good, tell the crew to meet in the comm room."

She stood with a dark determination; he was not going to get away this time.

Shepard let her gaze slide over the assembled crew. Everyone looked anxious and ready to jump; Shepard felt the same. "This is it, crew; the final stretch. We'll be dropping on Ilos, where we will find, and kill, Saren and find the Conduit."

"Are we going to destroy it?" asked Tali. Shepard's lip twitched involuntarily, "Depends."

She cast her gaze onto the figure seated closet to the door. "What is it?"

Benezia shifted uncomfortably as everyone suddenly realized that she was there. "It is a relay directly onto the Citadel…"

"What!?" exclaimed Garrus.

"It was built by the Protheans. The Citadel… is a relay into dark space, and the Protheans disabled it, now Saren needs to get back onto the Citadel in order to 'fix it'."

Shepard waited for that to set in. Everyone in the room's expression darkened as they realized the true extent of what Saren was doing. "Saren, or more accurately, Sovereingn, is planning to attack the Citadel with the Geth Fleet. We discovered this from those data banks on Solcrum. The Council fleets are moving now to defend it. But our priority is to find and kill Saren on Ilos… and let the Council decide what to do with the Conduit."

There were many things that the Alliance did sloppily but this was not one of those things. Benezia gazed down at her armour, rifle and gear that had been retrieved from Thessia. Everything was there, in perfect working condition. She thanked whatever deity was looking down at her when she decided not to take her stuff with her when she went with Saren.

She rolled her shoulders, the leather beneath her armour plating creaking delightfully. It felt good to finally be back in control, and even better now that she had some sort of nutrition in her body and fresh clothes.

She was also standing alone, the rest of Shepard's team were all hanging around the Mako. They all looked a lot more intimidating – with the exception of Garrus who was still wearing the same TITAN battlsuit.

Out of all the though, ironically, the most intimidating was the Quarian, Tali.

Now, yes. Next to her stood a nearly 9 foot tall Krogan Battlemaster wearing a suit ancient Tuchankan Power Armour, which to someone who wasn't Benezia, would look the most intimidating.

But, Benezia had faced Quarian's in battle before, and Tali most likely had at least ten functions on her omni tool that could render Wrex's armour useless, destroy his weapon – A Wriath, interesting- and she wasn't wearing cardboard. She was wearing _COLOSSUS_ battlesuit for Athames sake! Kassa Fabrication had only made so many of the things, before they became too expensesive. Normally, you would only see Spectre's strutting about in that. And it was Quarian! Best guess, there were only two in existence.

So yes, Benezia was more than a little intimidated by the quarian mechanic.

The elevator from the CIC opened and Shepard marched in dressed in full armour. She looked nearly as hulking as Wrex.

Flanking her was Kaidan and Liara, both dressed in light armour. ''Garrus, Tali, Benezia and Liara get in the Mako. The rest, you're in the Kodiak with Kaidan."

And that was when Benezia promptly learned how Alliances forces dropped into battle. They did from a tank, which plummeted down onto the ground. Only Benezia had any reaction when they hit the ground, she started at Liara, who shrugged, "You get used to it."

They just missed Saren, who disappeared behind a bunker door with an infuriating look of smugness on his plated face.

Shepard got out of the tank and appraised the door with a dark scowl.

"There's no way we're getting through that with brute force…" said Liara.

"Saren found a way in. Come on." Said Shepard, and she turned, unholstering her HWMA Rifle. "Garrus, switch to assault rifle, Benezia, hang back."

They started walking in the opposite direction of the bunker; a wall with a small gap obscured anything from further vision. All around them vegetation grew wildly over the ancient prothean structure, and, most unnervingly of all, there was not a single sound to be heard. Shepard hoised herself up just to see what was over it and cursed. "There's a bunch of geth on the other side, and what looks to be a compound, looks like we're going to have to explore the entire area."

Shepard tapped her omni-tool and her already bulky armour was covered in bright tech-armour. Then without another word, she stepped through the gap in wall, through up her arm, and a biotic barrier shielded her from the geth onslaught. Garrus followed behind her and then Liara, both stretched their arms out, their omni-tools glowing bright and the sound of shields exploding carried over the sound of gunfire for a moment.

Then Liara used Throw, and the geth, around five in number, went flying. Two crashed so hard against a far wall that their protective plating shattered from the impact. The other three did not get a chance to get up, they were reduced to scrap metal by tungsten rounds fired from Shepard and Garrus.

Benezia stared at the ruined bodies, not noticing the squad moving until more gunfire was heard further ahead.

Shepard was running forward, Liara tossed and group of geth into the air with Lift, Garrus' omni flashed and another group of geth exploded, Shepard flashed blue and in one huge geth armature smashed into a another, rendering both a useless pile of metal.

Benezia would be lying if she said that had not taken her breath away.

Shepard was a like Kurinth in human form, proud, powerful and awe-inspiring. Benezia blinked, shocked at herself. Normally, she would try to process what she had just thought but the squad was already moving on. She needed to keep up she would worry about her developing fascination with the human soldier later, right now she had an insane turian to help kill.


	4. Chapter 4

Shepard held a baited breath as they rounded another corner, her ears alert for any sound of geth activity. There was a noise in the background, like the thumping of a massive heart, beating away ominously somewhere in the ruins. "Do you guys here that?"

"That thumping?" asked Garrus.

"Yeah…"

"Probably just the geth… Benezia?"

The Matriarch shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe it's the conduit?"

"Hm, maybe. Keep sharp, there's bound to be geth around the next corner."

Seconds after the sentence left her mouth geth plasma fire ripped was her head, searing a hole into the wall behind her. She ducked into cover, just as Garrus and Liara opened fire with their rifles and Benezia threw the most powerfull warp Shepard had ever seen. It struck one of the geth and detonated with enough for that it melted the synthetic and sent the two closest geth flying. Shepard had worked with a few biotics in her career, Liara included, and she had never seen a warp _detonate_ like that.

A rocket exploded somewhere above her head, raining her down with bits of rock and a loud zap rang out as Garrus shot a geth down with his sniper. The characteristic thwack of a biotic throw was accompanied by panicked beeping and the sound of one metal body slamming into another.

Shepard leaned out of cover, a few shots hitting her shield and cast an overload field, which target each geth soldier who had shields around a certain radius. They all exploded as they were hit by the electro-static blast.

Garrus picked the rest of with his rifle and they continued forward, coming to room with a long corridor antechamber, definitely an ambush. She had no way of detecting where the geth were, thanks to their thrice-damned jamming, but if she were to hazard a guess based off of prior experience, they would have troopers along the side walls, possibly some stalkers, destroyers would not be involved in an ambush, but like way at the back along with several rocket troopers, and judging room the severity of their need to stop them, a prime would by meeting them as soon as they came forward.

"Garrus, take cover behind that low wall and snipe down anything ahead of us. Liara, Benezia, reinforce your shields, this is gonna be tough one."

The asari complied, Liara shimmering blue as she covered herself in a barrier. Benezia just nodded; her anti-tank gun of a rifle at the ready.

Shepard started forward. Just as she came into the threshold of the antechamber, the most dreaded sound met her; the sound of a Colossus unpacking itself.

"Fucking duck!" she held and divided behind a pillar just as a blast from that thing struck the ground where she had been standing, leaving behind a decent sized crater.

She could hear Garrus firing, and the sound of geth troops dieing. Christ there geth foot soldiers pouring into the room!

"Shepard, if you can disable its shields I can take it out!" said Benezia through the comm link.

"Alright everybody, hit it with an overload!"

At once three arms extended, and three bursts of electro-static hit the Colossus' shields, destroying it. A second later it was hit with a warp, and their was flash of biotics from where Benezia had been crouching.

Shepard looked back at the giant geth and could only stare in horrified astonishment. Benezia was standing on top of it!

It detected something on top of and could on step to one side and lean. Benezia, limned in bright biotic power and resplendent in her black armour, tore a section of armour plating off just below the thing's neck. She placed the barrel of her rifle into the hole and fired a full magazine into it. The Colossus _screamed_ and fired into the roof before exploding.

Shepard had to duck down to avoid a piece of shrapnel from hitting taking her head off.

Shepard looked around frantically, "I'm fine commander." Said Benezia's voice over the comm. There was another biotic detonation, and three geth troopers- rocket ones it looked like- landed somewhere near the Colossus' grave, warpfire burning away at their armour plating.

Shepard looked up from behind her cover and gazed in astonishment as Benezia flickered inbetween the geth, blasting them to pieces with either her rife or biotics. She was… amazing. Shepard found herself in a trance, unable to take her eyes of off the Matriarch- that was saying something as Benezia was biotically charging between each target.

It finally ended, and Shepard realized she had just been staring, slack jawed. Liara shook her head with a sigh, Garrus snorted and Benezia kicked the corpse of a very dead geth soldier.

Shepard swallowed and stood. "Commander, over here, there's a terminal, looks broken but…"

She followed the sound of Liara's voice. She was standing in front of a sparking Prohean computer terminal on the upper level. Aside from sparking, it was also spitting out disturbing pieces of some message with delightful phrases such as "They can't be stopped!" and "There is no hope!"

Yeah, that was definitely a boost towards Shepard's optimism.

The terminal also did not have the controls to the tunnel Saren had disappeared into.

Just as Shepard was about to walk away, the despairing computer sudden switched its tone, and a quiet voice told her tone wait.

Shepard turned around and came face to face with must have been a prothean VI.

It was shaped like prothean, too. It had three fingers on each hand, four eyes and triangular head and a pointy face. "Hello, I am Vigil, Prothean AI. I sense no traces of indoctrination in any of you, but… I can see it's mark in you." It said, looking at Benezia.

"Yeah… We fixed that."

The hologram nodded, "I see. The one you call Saren is in the containment tunnels. I have blocked his access to the Conduit, we must hurry to reach the Citadel before him."

Shepard's jaw tightened, "Yeah, gotta a way to do that?"

Vigil nodded, a beckoned them to follow, "Yes, follow me. I will accompany you to the Citadel, and accompany you to the Citadel. I sense that your cycle has had trouble understanding our beacons, I will aide you in explaining the Reapers to your government."

"How did you-?"

"I read your correspondence."

Shepard paused, "Yeah, don't do that again."

"Do not worry, Commander. I only read messages with the keywords of 'Reaper' and 'Prothean"."

Shepard nodded in relief.

"Goddess, an actual, working AI!" said Liara, in the most giddy tone Shepard had ever heard from the Archaeologist.

Vigil nodded to her, but kept walking. Benezia chuckled, "Now don't get too excited Liara, we still have to kill Saren."

They followed the AI to a massive room, with what looked like a miniature mass relay that had been shoved into the ground, and it was humming loudly. "Beautiful view." said Garrus.

"The conduit…its magnificient" breathed Liara in astonishment.

Vigil continued on toward the relay, which was a distance away.

"Yes. We built the Relay to gain access to the Citadel, after we had long lost it to the Reapers. The Citadel itself is a giant mass relay. The Reapers got to it first in our cycle. Scientists boarded the station, to deactivate it. Sovereign is likely on his way to the station now."

''Shit… They aren't ready for him!" exclaimed Shepard. A massive fleet had been amassing at the Citadel, but there was no way now way to know if they could withstand Sovereign.

"What they are not ready for is Saren." Said Benezia, "And if we don't hurry, it may just be too late."

Shepard nodded, ''Yeah , let's hope we're not too late already…"


	5. Chapter 5

It had been far too easy, Saren mused. Sovereign had burst through the Citadel fleet like Thresher Maw cutting through a group of school children.

And Shepard thought they stood a chance against the entire Reaper Fleet.

He glared, the thought of insolent human causing him to hasten his stride in anger. Shepard, she was a thorn under his plates that refused to be removed, despite his best efforts. And Benezia, he knew she was with her. Somehow, she had finally slipped from Sovereign's grasp.

The traitorous bitch was most likely on her way right now, having divulged all she knew of Sovereigns plans to the human. But Saren had been clever, he knew better than to trust the slippery old shark. He had only told her somethings, but regrettably it seemed she had somehow learned of the Conduit.

Likely from that daughter of hers.

He growled and shot a nearby keeper, the pathetic bug creature splattering. Under normal circumstances he would have found the sight quite satisfying.

The Council podium stood before him now. He took a breath, desperate to calm his nerves. This was it, the penultimate moment to the coming of the Reapers.

He laid one talon on a terminal situated behind the Councilor's seats. The Reapertech within him reacted, and the podium grew red as a massive holoscreen flew up before him. Using the haptic user interface, he closed the Citadel arms, and saw Sovereign descending upon the Presidium Tower.

He grinned. It was a frightening, mitrthless thing that scared some hidden corner of himself that still cried out at what he was doing.

He ignored it.

Benezia could now with confidence say that she knew what the most disorientating feeling in the galaxy was. Stepping through a Mass Relay.

It took a second for her head to stop spinning. The others were in a similar state. Shepard was holding on too Garrus while Liara was shaking her head.

Virgil was floating slightly above them.

"I shall follow you to the Presidium Tower, but I should warn you, there are hostile entities approaching."

Benezia saw them first. Husks were running down the pathway that led to Presidum Tower elevator. She threw out her hand to cast a throw field, but ended up launching herself back onto her rear. In a less dire situation this would have been quite funny.

Shepard Garrus had reacted second, firing at the mutilated humans with his assualt rifle. Someone picked her by her collar, and she realized with some embarresment that it was Liara. "Get up, quick!" Liara yelled as she practically threw Benezia into a standing position.

Again, normally she would have a rather scathing remark, but right now she had worry about cybernetically enchanced zombies running at them. She tried again with her biotics, and this time they worked, and three to four of the coming stampede was sent hurteling back, knocking into those behind them and causing a rather funny domino effect.

There was a staticy explosion has Shepard blew out their shields, allowing Garrus and Liara to fire at will into the crowd. In the end, all that was left of the husks were bits and pieces of grey bodyparts and faintly glowing wires, drowning in greenish goop.

The four of them just stood there for a second, breathing heavily. Virgil seemed to have vanished somewhere.

Then there were footsteps behind them and all four spun around, guns drawn.

"Finally, you lot are late!" said Wrex, stomping up to them with his massive shotgun hung limply at his side. Behind him, trailed the rest of the Normandy squad.

Shepard breathed a sigh of relief. "Wrex! Thank God. What happened?"

Wrex shrugged, "Exactly what it looks like, and what we said would happen. Sovereign appear, along side an armda of geth and blew the Citadel fleet to shit. Soon enough, geth and husks started swarming the Citadel."

"What about the Council? Where are they?"

"They're on aboard the Ascension, or should be at least..."

Benezia's stomach dropped, "Shepard, I know stopping Saren right now is a big priority - and it is - but if the Council gets taken out all at once..." she trailed off.

"It'll possibly mean war." Garrus finished for her.

Shepard sighed, "Great. But we don't know where they are, and the only way to know is to reach Citadel Control."

Wrex nodded, "Yeah, we'll head that way, you lot should should go up to the Tower and deal with Saren."

What followed was a long slog up the Presidium Tower, as none of Elevators worked. The stairs, built-in as an emergency exit, where nearly unending, steep and literated with geth. Fighting geth troopers in a tight, claustrophobic staircase was an experiance Benezia would have liked to forget.

Eventually, they reached the top, which led out into the wings of the Council Chamber.

There were geth all over the place. Whoever thought the excessive staircase were for intimidation were wrong, and had never had to fight their way up them while being shot at. Okay, that was granted, but still.

Geth were position behind many of the plants and trees. It was mission to even see them, much less get a clear shot. And then their was a whine, like a hovorboard but louder, and the next thing Benezia knew she was fifty feet in the air, hoisted up by her collar.

"Matriarch."

Sheer panic exploded in her chest as that cold, metallic voice that was at the same time organic.

Then she was free falling. She could see the glint of Saren's pistol as he aimed it down at her. Time seemed to slow for a second, and she was certain that death awaited her. Then, Saren was almost thrown of his hoverboard, and Benezia was caught in someones biotics.

How none of the Geth had shot her was astounding.

She landed with a thud, between Liara, who was focused entirely Saren, and Shepard, whose biotics slowly faded out of existence.

"Thanks..." said benezia, whilst hastily climbing to her feet. Saren was still hovering above them and the Geth were still pouring in from around them.

The situation was more than a little dire.

Then Liara hit Saren with a Warp. The result was amassive, bright explosion of light, and Saren stumbling. Seeing the oppurtunity, Benezia yanked the turian off of his board with a biotic pull. He soared through the air and hit the council podium with a crunch and loud groan.

"Keep the Geth off me." said Benezia, and then ran toward Saren, who was slowly getting up.

Just as she reached him, with the full intent to drive a biotic-enchanced punch up into his gullet, and struck out with palm open, and Benezia was sent stumbling back. Growling, Saren aimed his canon of a pistol at Benezia's head. There was a brief moment of stillness, where all Benezia could do was stare into the barrel of the gun. And the Boom!

The shot burst through Benezia's shields and into her abdomen. Agony lanced through her entire body, and she was brought to her knees.

Her left hand flew to her abdomen whilst her right stopped her from falling completely. Warm, purple blood was gushing through her fingers, and her vision was starting to blur. Their was a cold, metalllic voice talking. But bo longer from within her head, outside. She looked up, natural eyes met unnatural cybernetic ones. A cold turian grun, the press of metal against her head.

So she had failed. Failed to redeem herself, and failed to stop this mad turian. That was actually not surprising now that she thought about it. Her entire life had been a series of failures. Failed bondmate, failed parent, failed Matriarch and now failed to kill one thrice-damnded turian. Who was the reason she was no longer welcome back home... and tried to kill her daughter... and is the reason why she was going to forever be associated with Galactic terrorism...

Oh hell no. If she was going to die, she was taking the bastard who was responsible for her whole miserable situation with her.

Adrenaline burst through her, and she lurched forward. Her biotics flared instictively, causing a massive boost in her projections and she ended throwing them both off the edge of the podium.

They smashed through a layer of thin glass and landed on hard, unforgiving soil. Saren took the brunt of the fall, and in his surprise, he had dropped his gun.

In one smooth motion, Benezia pulled out her pistol and shot him in the head. The turians head exploded, covering Benezia in blue gore and leaving nothing much behind but a stump of bone and cybernetic wiring.

Panting, she just sat there for a moment. For the first time since she had initially boarded Sovereign, she felt good. A weight had been let of her shoulders. Sure, there was still the problem of her being kicked out of asari space, and the end of her life as she knew it but hey, she had saved life for everyone else. And, a future spent outside of asari space was a lot better than a future fighting horrible eldritch machine monsters.

And vengeance felt extremely sweet.

And then agonising pain resurfaced and she was reminded that there was a hole in her abdomen. That was a problem.

With extreme difficulty and string of Armalian curses, benezia dragged herself to her feet. With each step a monumental effort, she managed to get a few feet away from Saren. Then she look up. She was stuck down here, she realized.

Then Shepard appeared, peering down from above. A relieved smile appeared on her face, which Benezia instinctively mimicked. It was rather surreal. Then, Shepard's expression changed to one of horror, and her gaze flicked over to where Saren was.

The there was a sound similar to wires crackling, and heavy, laboured shuffling. Slowly, Beneiza turned around and froze in sheer horror.


End file.
